Carter
Her bikini was provocative. I watched her hips sway as she sashayed back to her room to get changed. I didn’t know when she’d matured from a teenager into a young woman, but I didn’t know if Paul understood how much more fascinating she was to men, me in particular. His reaction to the stalker meant that he was aware of what could happen to her if a stranger got his hands on her.
My watch buzzed. It was connected to a security app on my phone. I pulled it up, and it told me that the alarm I’d had the house’s security team set at the front gate was triggered. Nobody was on the video feed. I rushed for the front gate. The gatekeeper, Jose, had a breakfast break at this time, so people without the gate code just had to wait on the driveway outside until he came back.
The stalker’s ability to slide his unwanted gifts and notes into the exact slots where Paul’s employees wouldn’t be able to see him was uncanny. This guy had way too much access. There weren’t that many people who knew exactly when each member of Paul’s domestic staff would be off.
When I got there, I opened the gate. There was a heart-shaped box of candy sitting there. I looked around. The guy who had left it was nowhere to be seen at this point. I went back and closed the gate behind me. I went to the kitchen and cut open one of the chocolate candies. Inside were mutilated worms. Underneath the tray of candy, I found a note.
I love you, but you don’t deserve it.
“Hey, I’m ready for class.”
My head snapped up. I hadn’t heard Maya come in, which was unlike me. I would’ve kept the box away from her, but she was already frowning at the worm guts she could see in my hands.
“That’s new.” Disgust was clear on her face. There was a little fear, too, which honestly might be for the best. She needed to take her personal security a little more seriously.
“Don’t touch anything. All of this is going to one of my investigative team.”
“I don’t know why my stalker is so different. Most of the time, the gifts are sweet. And then, sometimes, the gifts are horrible.”
“This guy is nuts.” I shrugged. “There’s no way to understand his thoughts unless you are an FBI profiler.” Or someone trained that way, as multiple guys I knew in the security world were. “I promise to make it all stop and keep you safe.”
Maya stepped close to me and kissed me on the cheek. Reeling, I raised a hand to the soft kiss she had pressed to my cheek as she stepped back and blushed a little. “Thanks, Carter.”
I wished she had kissed me on my mouth. I felt ashamed of my thoughts about her when she was about half my age. “Ready for class?” I asked, uncomfortable with being so physically close to her. Being in her presence had an impact at least ten or a hundred times stronger than watching her post videos on TikTok.
“Yeah, sure.” She still looked a little shaken, but I brought her into my car so I could take her to campus securely. I knew I’d be supervising her class attendance.